Star Trek XI - spoilers!

[wso32]

Excerpt from a Time magazine interview with William Shatner:  Here is  a link to the entire article http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582327-1,00.html

Lost producer J.J. Abrams is working on a Star Trek movie for 2008 about a young Kirk and Spock, and there are rumors you will make an appearance.

I did have a talk with J.J., and he outlined what he wanted to do. Getting a character who is supposed to be dead to talk to his younger self is a storytelling problem. But if you want to guarantee the audience will come in droves, one of the things you might do is include some members of the old cast.

You are so indelibly linked to Captain Kirk, how do you pass on the torch to a younger actor?

Well, you light a match ... No, I really have nothing to offer. I can't say to some young actor, "Play it this way," because he's going to play it his way. But I will say, he's got to be young and good-looking and rich. And charming.

Some people say Star Trek is past its prime, and it's time to move on. Would you agree?

There was something about Star Trek that sustained it all those years. But with so many entities of Star Trek out there all at once, the audience began to leave it. Now there's a huge experiment going on: Will the audience pick up their love affair? We don't know. And as talented as J.J. is, this is the real test for him. He's got to give a known quantity the Abrams twist and yet maintain the Star Trek game.

Anyone find it interesting how Shatner said, "getting a character who is supposed to be dead to talk to his younger self...." Sounds like some kind of time travel scenario or something.  Anyone have any more info / ideas on that?  Cheers. :andorian

[jedijeff]

Thats was an interesting article, thanks for posting. I think it will be a unique way that the Characters will communique with each other, and hopefully will add to the movie. I think that Trek is on an upswing already, and I really believe that there will be lots of great years to come with Trek and SciFI in general.

[RickPeete]

The easiest way to have the old characters 'talk' with their younger versions would be the ole 'slingshot effect' but I hope they do not solve this with Time Travel.  Personally, I think that is getting to be a 'writers crutch' when they cannot figure out  more creative solution to a problem.

Of course, there is also the weird wormhole that Voyager experienced that let them send radio transmissions back to Starfleet but due to a time dialation effect, they were talking to a different 'time'.  Kinda like that movie "Frequency" when the main character was talking to himself in the future using his ham radio...

Or, maybe the Starfleet Temporal Police are somehow involved in this (like they were in the Enterprise series).

Or, they could send Kirk/Spock back using the Guardian...

Hmmm......

-Rick

[Kirk-Fu]

Has anyone mentioned the Nexus(Nexxus?). However its spelled.
It's been a long time since I saw Generations, but could that be worked in?

Spock returns from his dealing with the Romulans, hears that Kirk was alive and then killed, decides to seek out the nexus, use it to...uh, go back and save Kirk..or well, I dont know. Just a thought. I havent caught up on all the threads yet, so if its been brought up, sorry for the rehash.

[moyer777]

Has anyone mentioned the Nexus(Nexxus?). However its spelled.
It's been a long time since I saw Generations, but could that be worked in?

Spock returns from his dealing with the Romulans, hears that Kirk was alive and then killed, decides to seek out the nexus, use it to...uh, go back and save Kirk..or well, I dont know. Just a thought. I havent caught up on all the threads yet, so if its been brought up, sorry for the rehash.

That is just absolutley crazy!  I had the exact same thought. 

For what it's worth the whole nexxus thing kind of didn't make sense to me anyway.... it like this weird paradoxal time shift deal.... I get in these debates with people at my job about timelessness and how it looks because we as humans exist in time, but outside of time is eternity... man.. it gets over my head really quick.

Anyway, that is a great possibility, but since JJ isn't a real Star Trek geek, do you think he would even take advanatage of the nexxus??? Besides, isn't nexxus a brand of hair product?

That's it... A giant bottle of hair gel squeezes over the universe just in time to be straightened by a hot iron....   :worthy

and do you think they have netflix in the nexxus?  That would be funny if they did.  Because it sounds cool, but you would never have to rent any movies, because you would already have them.  :shocked

Hmmmmm.

Anyway, all that to say, I had the same thought on getting Kirk and Spock together one more time. :)

[Bryancd]

I think you all may be reading that qoute too literaley. I don't think Shatner meant there would be an actual conversation between old Kirk and young Kirk. I think it's much more likely the film could start with an old Kirk reflecting back upon his younger years. That would be a much more elegant way to include the some of the old cast without having to engage in the machinations of a whole new time travel twist. I think old Bill was just talking off the cuff about the whole old to new transition.

[RickPeete]

I hope you're right...

The whole Nexus thing wouldn't really work anyways.  Even if Spock finds the nexus, and can find a planet it will intersect with (remember, ships cant handle the stresses) so he can enter it, Kirk is not in the nexus any longer.  He left.  (Unlike Guinan who left a part of herself in the nexus when the transporter ripped her out during the attempted rescue by the Enterprise-B in Generations).

So if Spock was in there, the only Kirk he would find would have to be an image created by his own desires rather than the actual energy signature that was 'Kirk'.  He 'could' use the nexus to go in and then exit at a time in the past but Kirk would not be with him...

One other thing to consider from a timeline/storyline consistency thing -- the young Kirk and Spock cannot be exposed to any technology or race from a future timeline. Otherwise, all those episodes where they had their 'first encounter' with that race/technology would be rendered 'incorrect'.  I hate continuity gaps.

[Kirk-Fu]

Does anyone wonder if this movie is a one shot type thing, to restart the movie franchise, or will we likely see a series tied to it. Or will we see a series that isnt related to the movies?

I love my Trek movies, even the kinda bad ones, but I really want a weekly series.  I would enjoy a Riker series, but really dont want them to go much farther into the future...Trek Tech is already highly advanced. Go another 100+ years into the future, how wild would that be. Too much tech for me. I wasn't thrilled when I saw a transporter in Enterprise. I really wanted the NX era to be a bit more low tech.

[bigtmac68]

Sadly there is no word of any plans for a series other than the rumored animated webisodes that have not been given the green light.

I think paramount/cbs is waiting to see how well XI does before they make any further comitments to the franchise.

Come on JJ, give us a blockbuster. At this point i dont care if its mission impossible in space as long as it makes a ton of money and gets paramount re engaged to support the franchise as a whole again.

[wso32]

I couldn't find that this was already posted but if it has been, I apologize but Ive been away for a while.  I just read this article from last night that confirmed JJ Abrams will direct ST XI.  Here is the info from Trek Web. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Star Trek XI producer J.J. Abrams has signed on to direct the next installment of the Star Trek feature franchise, sources said late Friday.

Abrams will produce and direct the Star Trek XI prequel, which according to rumors will be released on Christmas 2008.

According to the site, Abrams has been developing the project through his Paramount-based Bad Robot shingle as a producer and writer. But Abrams never committed to directing the project until Friday evening, when the deal was finalized, sources say. Abrams reps at WMA declined comment on the matter.

Also, the article in the trade paper repeats the summary of Trek XI first reported in Variety : "a young James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, chronicling their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first space mission."


The original report can be found here http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3idc516528ddd1b4263febcf5c67efa0ce

[Dan M]

Yeah!

I absolutely loved MI3.  We can only hope that Trek XI is nearly as good

[Rico]

Yeah I read that too.  Looks like Abrams is going to direct it.  I liked MI 3 a lot.  I have high hopes for this.

[Geekyfanboy]

I would have high hopes too, if the story wasn't a prequel.

[Kirk-Fu]

Wow, thats crazy. A day or so ago I read he was going to direct The Dark Tower thing, and would just produce Trek. Now he is for sure directing.

I like it. Glad he has his priorities straight :-)

[the_wasd_man]

WOOOOOOHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Trek XI has officially been green-lit!

http://trekmovie.com/2007/02/26/star-trek-xi-has-been-greenlit/